Opened in 1829, this was one of the most important Polish institutions during the Prussian era, and houses one of Poland’s most precious literary collections today. Founded by Count Edward Raczyński, the library’s aim was to cultivate and preserve Polish identity through science, culture and the arts, and its neo-classicist facade was designed by French architects Ch. Percier and P. F. Fontaine to look like Paris’ Louvre.

Edward Raczyński was one of Poznań’s most important politicians and philanthropists, who also founded the city’s first hospital and waterworks in a bid to improve public health (a statue of Raczyński’s wife Konstancja as Hygieia, the Greek goddess of cleanliness, stands in front of the library today). One of his more curious projects was a ‘Home for the Ostensibly Dead,’ where corpses would be laid with a bell tied to their toes to alert a guard if they suddenly reanimated - an effort to assuage hysteria over being buried alive. Raczyński also financed Poznań Cathedral’s Golden Chapel, but accusations of fraud during its realisation sent him spiraling into fits of depression. A fan of reenacting maritime battles for the public on his private lake, one day in 1845 he boarded his ship and became the only person in history to commit suicide by blowing their head off with a naval cannon.

Something about a library…? Ah, yes. Founded on the private collections of Raczyński and his wife, it quickly grew through donation to hold some 200,000 tomes, aided in part by a decree from King Frederick William III, obliging all publishing houses to donate a copy of each published book to the library. Tragically, 90% of the collection was torched during WWII, but not before 17,000 of the most valuable objects were spirited to safety at the family estate in Obrzycko by Edward’s cousin, Józef Raczyński. The library was rebuilt after the war, and a new modern wing was added in 2013. Today it is Poland’s oldest public library, and also one of its largest. If you’re the kind of person who likes popping into public buildings, the beautiful mix of neo-classical ornamentation and modern elements inside will reward you.